Now China itself will investigate the attack on the bus of Chinese engineers working in the Dasu Hydropower Project in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that it would soon send a team to Pakistan to investigate the blast. A total of 13 people, including 9 Chinese engineers, were killed in this attack. It is believed that in view of Pakistan’s contradictory statements about the attack, China does not trust its investigation. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said China would cooperate closely with Pakistan in the investigation.
‘Attack’ or ‘Accident’? tangled pakistan
After this attack on Wednesday, Deputy Commissioner of Upper Kohistan Arif Khan Yousafzai called it a terrorist attack. He had told that the blast happened at 7.30 am in a bus carrying Chinese engineers. There were 30 people in it. Whereas, after a while, the Water and Power Development Authority of Pakistan dismissed it as a bus accident. In Islamabad, the officials told till evening that this area is located very far away. They are not aware of the reality of the incident as there is no mobile connectivity.
China called it a bomb attack
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, who came to the press conference after the death of Chinese engineers in this blast, called it a bomb attack. However, even then Pakistan maintained that a mechanical failure caused the gas leak which led to the explosion. Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and urged Pakistan to investigate the blast, according to a post on the Chinese Foreign Ministry website on Thursday. But, Wang Yi described the incident as an explosion, not an attack.
China said – the culprits should get strict punishment
Wang Yi told the Pakistani Foreign Minister that if it was indeed a terrorist attack, Pakistan should immediately arrest the culprits and give them the harshest punishment. China’s State Counselor and Foreign Minister Wang said that we should learn lessons from this incident and that both sides should strengthen security measures for China-Pakistan cooperation projects to ensure their safe and smooth operation.
Chinese were working in Dasu Hydropower Project
The Chinese workers killed in the bus were employed to work at the Dasu Hydroelectric Project as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Wang and Qureshi spoke in the Tajikistan capital Dushanbe on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization foreign ministers meeting.
